Desert Sands MDWCA Arsenic Removal

Desert Sands MDWCA Arsenic Removal

In August 2008, AdEdge Water Technologies was contacted by the engineering firm Bohannan Huston to design, supply and start up an arsenic and iron removal system for Desert Sands MDWCA Well #4 in Anthony, New Mexico. The water chemistry had an arsenic level of 17 to 20 ppb and a naturally occurring iron level of 1 mg/L that will facilitate co-precipitation and removal of arsenic.

AdEdge was chosen for the project after Pete Gomez, operator of Desert Sands MDWCA, visited one of our treatments down in Springfield, Ohio.

He stated, “That impressed me so that is one of the major reasons we selected AdEdge Technologies.”

AdEdge designed an for mrated for 450 gpm. From the treatment system, water feeds the storage tank and distributed to approximately 500 end users. The system was constructed and deployed in early 2010.

The AdEdge treatment system featured a skid-mounted AD26 oxidation and filtration package unit rate for a maximum design flow of 450 gpm. The model APU26-6660CS-3-AVH utilizes the AdEdge AD26 GS+ media in a three vessel configuration in series. Sodium hypochlorite is fed into the system prior to the injection of ferric chloride to oxidize any arsenic III to arsenic V for optimized removal. The system is fully equipped with automated control valves and harness, central control panel with programmable logic controller (PLC) and a color user interface screen. System features also differential pressure switches, control panels and local gauges, flow sensors and totalizers, and a central hydraulic panel with sample ports for a complete functioning packaged unit. Each 66-inch diameter carbon steel treatment vessel contains approximately 48 cubic feet of AdEdge AD26 GS+ oxidation filtration media.

The system was started up and began operation in March 2010. Pete Gomez, operator of Desert Sands MDWCA, stated that, “Of the samples taken to the labs, all our arsenic, it looks to be being removed, from 17 parts down to no-detects.” In addition to the arsenic being removed from the water, there is also “the removal of iron, which will benefit the community and benefit O & M process of having red/yellow water calls all the time.”